Marly Youmans's Blog, page 13

Image pilfered from Paul Pastor's twitter page
 @pauljpastor



A month back, writer Fred Chappell wrote me a long, curious letter about The Book of the Red King, and he suggested a way of looking at the book that I found interesting and enlightening. He talked about puns, sound play, musical language, and many other things, but it's his thoughts about board game and the book that I'm sharing

 Detail from artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins,
cover for Charis in the World of Wonders


Marly Youmans' historic novel 'Charis in the World of Wonders' chronicles the journey of its protagonist on her horseback flight from destruction to sanctuary and from sanctuary to an unexpected madness that had me gnawing my knuckles as I read.

Marly is a peerless writer and at Ignatius she has an editor and

Illumination by Clive Hicks-Jenkins of WalesPhoenicia Publishing, 2019




I continue to be grateful to novelist Scott G. F. Bailey for his ongoing and perceptive treatment of my work. As a reader, he always enters into a work with a free mind and writes engagingly of what he finds. Now he has written a long blog post about The Book of the Red King; you may read the whole thing HERE, at Six

Photos by Laurie Kearns.

The Red King at the Green Toad.







UPCOMING: Clive Hicks-Jenkins has been showing me images for the next book, a novel, this week; he writes a bit about us, the book, and his other illumination work HERE.

                    October 5 Saturday 2:00 p.m.

  Marly Youmans reading from The Book of the Red King

                     GREEN TOAD BOOKSTORE

                    198 Main St. Oneonta, NY 13820

                                  (607) 433-8898


I forgot to take any pictures at my North Carolina events for The Book of the Red King. But here's an article (thank you, Megan Pociask) about my

Clive Hicks-Jenkins
vignette on Tomoe River paper
for Charis in the World of Wonders


Often I am asked about what it's like to work--I always think the verb should be dance--with artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins. He has illuminated and beautified my books for a long time now. I often thought of us as metaphysical twins (I can't remember who first came up with that thought) when we first tumbled

Preparatory sketch 
by 
Clive Hicks-Jenkins




Clive Hicks-Jenkins, from facebook: "A tiny and rough-ish drawing from my current project-book for Marly Youmans’ new novel ‘Charis in the World of Wonders’. The project-book contains several suggestions to the editorial board for the cover, one of which has now been selected and signed-off on, plus a stitchwork-inspired bestiary as a starting

Here's a glimpse of where I've been... 

Back to blogging in about a week.

I'm offering a sampler of poems from the new book for anyone who sends me his or her email address. The collection is 150+ pages, so it'll be just a taste of an awfully big sequence. 

* * *

Most requests have come in via social media messaging, but if you would like a sampler, you can request in any of these ways: a twitter private message; a facebook private message; an email; and even a

Phoenicia Publishing hardcover and paperback pre-orders are officially over, though discount links are still up (love, frolics, and thank you to all who ordered), and the poetry collection is now available via Amazon, bookstores, etc. 172 pages, art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Please think about supporting my poems and Phoenicia, a stellar small press, brainchild of Elizabeth Adams! We are